


pride

by bouncingOffClouds



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexuality, F/F, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, LGBTQ Themes, Lesbian Character, Trans Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Trans Character, actually i know this is crappy, adrienne not adrien, bi marinette, i love julerose, i might make random klance references every once in a while, i spent way too long on this though so please read it, i'm pretty sure this is very crappy, minor marc/nathaniel, my second fanfic, pan alya
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-04-07 13:57:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19086451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bouncingOffClouds/pseuds/bouncingOffClouds
Summary: Adrienne Agreste isn't out yet. She's afraid to tell anyone that she's actually a girl- not the boy that everyone thinks she is.Meanwhile, Marinette and her friends, Alya, Rose, and Juleka, try to form an lgbt club at school. However, Monsieur Damocles isn't the most accepting principal.





	1. chat noire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all! happy pride month! this is my second fanfic so it's still really crappy. but i tried. so yeah. enjoy!

Chat Noire looked down at the blood on her hands. She didn’t know how this had happened. How the boy’s blood had gotten on her. She couldn’t even figure out how the civilian’s leg had been sliced open by the akuma in the first place. The girl could have sworn that she had pushed the bystander out of the way of the metal blades swinging around viciously, that she had tried to avoid letting someone innocent be harmed. But apparently her efforts had not been enough, as the teenage boy lying wounded on the ground in front of her was now losing blood rapidly.

Chat stared down at her red hand for a moment, gaping at the blood, then snapped back to reality. She scooped the boy up in her arms quickly and grabbed her metal pole that was hooked to her waist, extending it with the press of a button. In a moment, the two of them had landed on the roof of the nearest building with a small thud. Then, with the boy still in her arms, Chat crossed the rooftops of the city, heading far away from the akuma battle so that he would be safe. 

Finally, when Chat deemed the distance to be far enough, she set the boy down on a sidewalk and instructed the nearest person to call a medic. In an instant she was bounding back across the tops of the buildings back to the battle.

When she arrived back, Ladybug was struggling to pull the monster onto its side with her yoyo so that she could grab the bracelet wrapped around its bare ankle. The akuma, however, dodged her advancements, avoiding the string that was threatening to pull it onto its side.

Chat Noire observed the scene, contemplating what she should do to most effectively help her partner take the bracelet from the villain’s leg. She could just jump down and extend her baton in the akuma’s direction in order to try knocking it down, but there was a high probability that her attempt would be evaded. It seemed that the possessed civilian was well-equipped to circumvent attacks, as they wore a pair of boots that somehow made them move faster. In addition to that, they wore solid metal armor and there were saw blades attached to their hands, making them quite dangerous.

Of course, Chat had faced many villains herself and had a lot of experience fighting, so it was fair to say that she was formidable opposition for the akuma.

The girl dressed in a cat outfit jumped down from her perch on the building and landed on the pavement below. “Need any help, m’lady?”

“Yeah,” Ladybug started, letting out a high-pitched noise of exertion as she threw her yoyo again. “I’m trying to get the akuma to stand on that sewer drain over there. Once they’re standing on it, activate your cataclysm and destroy it. I’ll be able to use these,” she gestured to the red and black saw-blade cases in her left hand, “to cover the blades, then I’ll grab the bracelet.”

“Alright,” Chat nodded. “Cataclysm!”

Seconds later, the villain was standing on the spot that Ladybug had indicated. The cat girl pressed her hand to the metal drain, swiftly reducing it to a pile of ashes. The metal-clad akuma fell down and tried to hold on to the edge, but the blades on their hands were covered by the cases that Ladybug was holding, so they lost their grip. They tumbled down into the sewer and Ladybug chased after. Chat waited, and moments later her partner returned with the bracelet.

This, right here, in Chat’s opinion, was the best part of each battle.

She smiled as Ladybug broke the bracelet in half, captured the purple butterfly with her yoyo, and released a pure white one in its place. Chat thought that the insect’s transition from evil to good was a spectacular thing, and she loved to watch it.

But mostly she loved those moments after the akuma was freed because she was able to watch Ladybug’s crystal blue eyes sparkle as she tossed her yoyo into the air and yelled _Miraculous Ladybug_. Because of the way that the bluenette’s pigtails always glittered when the magic ladybugs surrounded her, the way that the girl held her hands out to the sky, inviting the pink bugs to circle around her and heal the scratches that marred her beautiful skin.

Chat Noire reveled in this amazing moment for as long as she could, before the beeping sounds of her ring brought her out of her trance. She had to get help the akuma victim out of the sewer hole and find a place to detransform out of the view of the public’s eye within five minutes. Ladybug had to leave, as she had less time until her miraculous deactivated than Chat did.

So she helped the akuma victim up and waved to the news cameras before disappearing to detransform behind a building a few blocks away.

This was the part of every battle that Chat Noire always hated the most. Because when her transformation dropped and the green light faded away, she was Adrien Agreste, son of famous fashion designer Gabriel Agreste. She was born a male, and so she had to pretend to be one. She had to fake her own identity because no one would accept her for who she truly was.

Another reason why Adrien, or Adrienne, loved being Chat Noire so much. Everyone saw her as a girl. They didn’t see the part of her that was male, they didn’t call her a ‘he’ like everyone else did. She didn’t have to hide her true self, like she had to at home, at school.

She didn’t have to pretend to have the perfectly polite personality that her father expected her to have, either. As Chat Noire, Adrienne could make all the puns she wanted, could flirt with the girl that she was in love with. She could act a little immature every once in a while without being scolded or chastised. It was freedom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i hope this first chapter wasn't too crappy...
> 
> also there's more coming soon so if you actually liked it then you can probably expect an update (:


	2. embrace it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo hey so this chapter's got a bunch of dialogue in it. i'm not really the best at writing dialogue but i think it's okay? idk. although i feel like this one's better written than the last chapter. so yeah.
> 
> also this chapter focuses more on marinette's bisexuality. she has a hard time embracing it, and so her friends are trying to get her to do so. besides that, it also shows how other people view adrienne as a guy. i used male pronouns when referring to her here because this chapter's from marinette pov and that's how she sees adrienne. i also do that because it emphasizes how adrienne is always getting called by male pronouns and how she can really feel free from all of that as chat noire. (of course, the next chapter, which is from adrienne's pov again, will refer to her with female pronouns. it all depends on whose pov the chapter's from.) i hope that little explanation makes sense.

“Psst- Mari,” Alya whispered. They were in Madame Bustier’s class, who was currently telling the everyone about their next assignment.

Marinette ignored her friend, instead scribbling something down in her notebook.

“Marinette.” Still no response.

A poke on the bluenette’s shoulder.

“What do you want Alya?” the girl finally responded, whipping her head to the left to face her best friend.

“Jeez, you don’t have to be so snappy with me.”

“Sorry, it’s just that I got almost zero sleep last night, Alya,” Marinette said with a sigh.

“Again?”

“Yeah. I had a lot of homework,” she lied. Well, it wasn’t a complete lie. She did have to stay up until 3 am working on an essay (due the next day, and she hadn’t even started it) because she’d been busy after school until about 8 o’clock fighting the akuma.

Alya shook her head at Marinette but didn’t question the girl’s sleep deprivation any further, to Marinette’s relief. “Anyways, girl, I was wanting to know if you’d like to meet up at the café after school today? In art class earlier today Rose and Juleka told me that they were going to go with Marc. They invited me to come along and also told me to ask you if you’d like to come too. So yeah. You wanna come?”

“You know that you could have just asked me this after class, right? When I’m not trying to take notes? You also could’ve asked at lunch earlier, too” Marinette said, writing down something else.

“Yeah. I know. So are you coming?”

“Sure. I mean it’s Friday, so I guess homework can wait.”

“Coolio. Just meet us after school at the usual place, near the lunchroom,” Alya said. Then, “Stop staring at Adrien, you’re going to embarrass yourself.”

“I’m not staring at him, Alya.”

“Well you were just looking at him a minute ago.”

Mari just huffed, her face turning the slightest shade of pink, and went back to taking notes.

_____

By the time Marinette got to the meeting spot, the rest of the group was already there. It seemed as if Rose and Marc were in a heated discussion… something about whether a macaron could be considered a sandwich? Or maybe they were talking about a sandwich made out of macarons? Either way, Marinette was pretty sure it was just another one of their pointless conversations. The two of them were always talking about stupid things like that.

“Hey girl.” Alya, who had been conversing with Juleka, greeted Mari as she walked up to the group. “You should see this video that Juleka got of ladybug last night. It’s pretty cool.” Without waiting for a response, she took out her phone, and tapped a few times to open the video.

The screen showed an image of Ladybug breaking the bracelet that the akuma was in and and purifying the evil butterfly, then doing the miraculous ladybug cure. Chat Noire was watching, with a clear lovestruck look on her face. It was no secret that she liked Ladybug, that was for sure. Marinette, though, always turned down her advances on her. She felt bad doing so, but she liked someone else. She didn’t want to lead her on and later break her heart.

Once the video was over, Marinette turned to Juleka and asked her how she had managed to film that.

“Well… my dad likes photography and he was setting up a new camera near the window to test it out, and then the akuma attacked right near where we live, so I used his camera to film it,” Juleka said, lightly tapping her foot on the ground. “Watching the whole thing happen was pretty awesome. I mean, I watched someone basically get their leg cut open, but I knew they’d be fine so like. Yeah. It was pretty awesome.”

“I bet it was. I’d love to watch Ladybug and Chat Noire in action sometime, but I feel like the akumas always attack when I’m not around.” Mari would have liked to tell them that she was, in fact, Ladybug, but that was dangerous. She didn’t want them to be used against her by Hawk Moth, or any other villain. She just wanted to keep them out of harm’s way as best as she could. Of course, this was difficult, as Alya was always running right into battles with her camera to record everything, even after she’d been taken hostage by the Pharaoh and had been injured on multiple occasions. That girl was a diehard journalist who wanted her scoop, so it was a challenge keeping her safe.

“Sometime you should come with me to chase down akumas,” Alya suggested, sliding her phone back into her bag. “It’s really fun.”

“Yeah… no thanks. I’m more sane than you are. Believe it or not, I don’t actually want to be held hostage by an akuma, y’know?”

“Hey, I’m perfectly sane.”

“No, you aren’t.”

“You really aren’t,” Juleka agreed.

“Hey-” Alya started, but then was cut off by Rose tapping her on the shoulder.

“Is a macaron a sandwich?” the little girl asked.

“Oh my gosh, are you still talking about this?” was Alya’s response. “How about you stop with that and we go and just eat some macarons.”

“Yeah,” Juleka mumbled, taking Rose’s hand in hers. “But for the record, you’re right, Rose.” 

“See, Marc? Juleka says I’m right and so I’m right! A macaron is a sandwich,” Rose’s voice seemed like it was at an octave higher than usual.

“The only reason why Juleka agrees with you is because you’re her girlfriend. Like, I bet if I asked Nathaniel, he’d agree with me too.”

Marinette just sighed.

___

On their way to the café, Alya and Marinette continued talking about Ladybug and Chat Noire. Well, more accurately, it was Alya obsessing over the two superheros while Mari tried to keep herself from yawning too much. On the other hand, Rose, Juleka, and Marc were _still_ talking about the macaron situation. Eventually, though, they came to a truce. A macaron was a sandwich, but not a sandwich. (That didn’t make any sense to Marinette, but they stopped talking about it, which is all that she really cared about.)

After about a 10 minute walk, the five of them arrived at the Café de Fleur. It was a cute little shop, the outside adorned with pots of multi-colored flowers and a few small tables. Inside, there were a few couches, more tables, and of course, more flowers. There was also a cash register next to a case of pastries accompanied by a menu on the wall behind it, showing all of the options of foods that people could eat. Marinette ordered a small hot chocolate and then claimed a table near the window while her friends were ordering their own food and drinks.

Outside of the window, Marinette could see a bird pecking at some crumbs that looked like they were from a blueberry muffin. Or just something with blueberries in it. The bird had greyish-pink feathers and a streak of blue on its wing. When it hopped to face the window, Marinette could see a patch of lighter feathers on its stomach that looked like a heart. _Pretty_ , she thought to herself as it flew off with a blueberry in its mouth. The girl had seen birds like this one everyday, but never had she really taken a moment to appreciate them for their beauty.

The bluenette turned back to the table and smiled as the rest of the group sat down. Alya handed her the hot chocolate that she ordered, and Mari took it with a soft-spoken thanks.

“Okay, but keep in mind you can’t really pay attention to anything that Chloé says,” Rose was sitting to her left and was talking to Marc, who was fiddling with his fingerless gloves nervously. “I mean, that girl’s been the cause for like, half of the akumas that there’s been this year. She just acts like she’s always better than everyone else, which, clearly she isn’t. Right, Marinette?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, Chloé’s always been really mean towards me for some reason. I think it’s probably because I’m bi, or I like Adrien, or something like that. I don’t really know what’s wrong with her,” Marinette shrugged, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. “I’ve always thought that it’s kind of ridiculous, though. I mean, she put an anti lgbt pin on her backpack and kept pointing at it during class whenever I looked in her direction. It’s really stupid.”

“Or, in Chloé’s words, ridiculous, utterly ridiculous,” Rose said with a little bit of a giggle. “But yeah, don’t let her get to you.”

“What even happened with Chloé anyways?” Marinette mixed her hot chocolate, trying to get the marshmellows to melt.

“Oh, yeah, today I was going to my locker, minding my own business and Chloé just pops out of nowhere and starts saying stuff about how stupid I look and how I should dress more like a boy. She also told me I was, well, worthless,” Marc mumbled everything, looking down nervously. “And then, well, I was just thinking, what if she’s right? I mean, my parents refuse to acknowledge that I’m gay and that I have a boyfriend. I feel like they don’t really care about me and sometimes I wish that I just didn’t come out to them, y’know? I mean, I’d be lying to them if they thought that I were straight but like I kind of just want to be who I want to be and…” he trailed off. “Yeah. I’m just rambling now. Sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry. You’re totally fine, Marc,” Marinette smiled at him. “You don’t have to really listen to what everybody else says. I mean, you have us, Nathaniel, and so many other people that are here for you.”

“She’s right,” Rose agreed.

The bluenette continued, “It was pretty brave to come out to them in the first place, too. I wish I could get the courage to come out to my parents.”

“I thought that you were going to come out to them like a month ago.” This was Juleka, who was sitting on Mari’s right. She was eating a raspberry muffin and was careful not to get crumbs all over the table in front of her.

“Well, I kind of chickened out. I just, don’t know. I’m just afraid of what they’ll think,” Marinette was nervously tapping her fingers on the table in front of her.

“Marinette, your parents are the most accepting people. They know I’m pan, and they’re completely fine with that,” Alya started. “And besides, there was that one time when Rose and Juleka were making out and your parents saw it and they didn’t even bat an eye. Like, girl, they were just like ‘oh would you guys want anything to eat?’ They still treat them with respect.”

“But Alya.” Marinette protested. “There are plenty of parents who accept it when other people’s kids are lesbian, or bisexual, or whatever. But they don’t like it when their own kid is one of these people. And I guess that I’m just, afraid that they’re one of those parents.”

“Mari.” Rose put her hand on the girl’s left shoulder and looked her in the eye. “You don’t have to come out to them if you don’t want to, but I’d encourage you to do so. Your parents will probably be very very accepting of who you are. I already know that they’re accepting than others. Like mine. They won’t even let Juleka in the house. I think that you should do it because being bisexual is just who you are. You should be able to embrace that.” Marinette started to interrupt her but Rose talked over her. “I know you have trouble embracing that part of yourself sometimes. But you need to, because that’s who you are. You shouldn’t have to hide.”

“Thanks, Rose,” Marinette nodded. “I’m going to try coming out to them. Tomorrow night.”

“You got this, girl. By the way Rose, nice speech there,” Alya complimented.

“Yeah, thanks,” Rose got out of her chair and started towards the cashier. “You guys want anything? I’m getting another muffin.” She waited for everyone to respond, and it was a no from everybody. “Alright then. By the way, Marinette, look behind you.”

“Huh…?” The girl wearing pigtails turned around and jumped at what she saw. “Adrien’s here?!”

Alya waved Adrien over to where they were sitting near the window. “Hey Adrien! What’s up?”

Marinette waved too, smiling as the boy approached their table. (Or rather, she smiled at the _girl_ who was approaching their table. But she didn’t know this and so she still thought that Adrienne was a guy.)

“Oh, nothing much,” Adrien was now standing right next to Mari, who blushed with his near proximity. “I was just going to get a snack before fencing. I actually have to go to practice soon, so see you later?”

“Yeah, bye!” Marinette nervously giggled. She watched him like a hawk as he went up to the cashier and bought a muffin and then exited out the door.

“So, Marinette.” Rose was back. “You should tell him that you like him.”

“Nope, no way. Not happening.”

“You’ve got to do it at some point, Mari.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Oh my gosh. You are hopeless.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, is a macaron a sandwich?


	3. bad mood, new hobby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's two am and i should probably go to bed but i don't really feel like it so here's another part of the story.

By the time Adrienne had left the café, she was almost late for her fencing lesson. She hadn’t really expected for the walk down to the little shop to take her so long- usually it only took her 10 minutes or so, but for some reason today, it had taken her 20.

The girl also felt bad about not being able to talk to Marinette, Alya, and everybody else. Adrienne hoped that she hadn’t seemed rude when she had left their table quickly. It was just that she needed to get back to the school so that Monsieur D’argencourt wouldn’t give her another one of those you-shouldn’t-be-late lectures. She had had to sit through one of these before, and it was not fun. He went on for a full 15 minutes about how it’s important to be on time because it shows that you have the responsibility you need in order to succeed. Adrienne hadn’t really paid attention to it, though, and had merely just pretended that she listened to every single word that came out of the man’s mouth.

Wanting to avoid that happening again, Adrienne speed-walked, practically ran back to the school. She felt a little bit of movement from under her jacket. It was probably just Plagg. That kwami never sat still. 

Finally, the girl reached the school, a bit out of breath. _4:55_ , her phone’s clock read. That meant five minutes to shove everything into a locker and get on fencing gear. Or rather, four minutes until Adrienne would start receiving messages from Kagami telling her to get her ass to practice. There was no way she’d be ready in a mere five minutes.

Adrienne rushed into the locker room… the _guy’s_ locker room. Not the girl’s. No. If she wanted to be able to use the girl’s, that would mean coming out to everyone, including her father. However, there was no way that her father could know who Adrienne truly was. He viewed her as his perfect son and expected her to act in not only accordance to the rest of society, but also in accordance to him. Essentially what that meant was that you were cisgender and you liked someone of the opposite sex.

Of course, Adrienne also knew that some of the other girls at her school were pretty accepting, like Alya, Juleka, Rose… there were lots of open-minded people. Still, there were many that refused to accept the existence of people like herself and so coming out could be somewhat dangerous. For example, just a few months ago, there’d been an attacker on a subway trying to stab a man who was open about being trans and had given numerous speeches about his experiences. He’d made it out alive, thankfully, but it just proved that it wasn’t exactly easy to be queer.

Adrienne rushed to her locker and threw it open, keeping her head down so that she wouldn’t be reminded of where she was. She was the only one there, so that made her less self-conscious of her body, but the smell of guy-deodorant and other dude stuff kept her aware of where she was. The girl swung open the red-ish colored metal locker and threw her bag inside quickly, reaching for the white fencing gear that sat inside. She scooped it up and started putting it on immediately, not wanting to be late.

Apparently Plagg had different ideas.

He flew out of the jacket Adrienne was wearing and perched himself on a shelf inside the locker.

“You got any Camembert?”

“Now isn’t the time, Plagg.”

“You always say that.”

“Well, now’s probably the worst time to ask for cheese.”

“But, I’m hungry,” the kwami whined, flying right in front of Adrienne’s face, who swatted the creature away. “My stomach’s going to die if you don’t give me anything.”

Adrienne sighed. “If I give you some Camembert, will you stop bugging me and just let me put my fencing gear on?”

“Hmm…”

“Oh my gosh Plagg. Here,” the blonde said as she fished a piece of cheese out of the pocket of the white jacket she always wore. Plagg took it and swallowed it in one gulp. He then sat himself back inside the locker and was silent for a moment before speaking again.

“You should ask pigtail girl out sometime.”

“Thanks for your advice, but I don’t really need it right now,” Adrienne slipped on some more fencing gear. “Besides, I’m pretty sure Marinette’s straight and that if she ever found out that I’m a girl-” she was cut off by a beeping sound coming from her phone.

It was Kagami, of course.

**Kagami:** You’re late.

**Kagami:** D’argencourt isn’t here yet though so if you hurry your ass down here fast enough you’ll be spared.

**Kagami:** Where even are you?

The girl still standing in the locker room quickly typed back a response.

**Adrien:** i’ll be there soon

**Adrien:** getting into fencing gear now

**Kagami:** Ok but be quick.

Adrienne closed her phone and slid it into a pocket on the side of her bag. She didn’t know how Kagami managed to keep her phone on her during fencing practice without getting caught with it; Monsieur D’argencourt didn’t like seeing anyone with them out. She didn’t know either how Kagami managed to text everyone during the middle of lessons, either. One time the two of them had made plans to hang out at Kagami’s place after fencing and the girl had somehow managed to text their other friends to see if they wanted to come, too before their practice ended.

Once Adrienne had all of her fencing gear on, she grabbed her sabre and hastily swung the locker door closed. She hurried down to the area where their practice usually was and saw Kagami there, waiting. The rest of the fencing team wasn’t there, however, as they wouldn’t be participating in the upcoming tournament. Kagami and Adrienne were the only ones good enough to compete in it and so in preparation, Monsieur D’argencourt was giving the two of them a few semi-individualized lessons.

“Hey Kagami,” Adrienne walked up to the fellow fencer, giving her a wave.

“You’re lucky D’argencourt isn’t here yet,” Kagami said with a stern, and somewhat sad, look on her face.

“Yeah, I know. I was just taking a walk and kinda lost track of time.”

“You really need to keep better track of time. You’re like, always late for things.”

“Yeah, I know,” Adrienne repeated. “Anyways, you seem a little bit upset today. Is there something going on or something?” 

“There’s nothing,” the other girl said without the slightest bit of hesitation. Kagami then turned around a little bit. It seemed as if she were looking for someone. “Nothing at all. Oh hey, look, there’s D’argencourt.”

Sure enough, Monsieur D’argencourt was heading their direction. Adrienne waved to their fencing coach, smiling a little bit. 

“You seem happy today,” Kagami didn’t even look in Adrienne’s direction when she spoke.

“Yeah, I guess so,” the blonde shrugged but didn’t say anything else.

Soon, their teacher was standing right next to them. “Hello Kagami, Adrien,” he greeted. “Sorry I’m late. I just had to talk to Monsieur Damocles about one of my students who was misbehaving during class today. I’m glad to see that you’re both here on time, though. Being on time is the sign of a responsible student.”

Adrienne internally laughed at the irony.

“Anyways, shall we get started?” D’argencourt continued. Both of the girls nodded. “So, I was thinking that we would begin with a few warm-ups, then do some drills and end today with some sparring. There are a couple of exercises that I’d like to show you two today, too. I’m hoping that you both will be able to practice them outside of our lessons and that they will help at the upcoming tournament. Sound good?” Kagami and Adrienne both agreed, the former still seemingly irritated by something.

The pair of them worked through the warm-ups that were given by their teacher and quickly moved through the necessary drills and exercises. Like D’argencourt had said, he taught them a few new exercises. None of them were terribly difficult for Adrienne to do.

Finally, it was time for Kagami and Adrienne to spar. It seemed as if Kagami hadn’t yet shaken off her bad mood and she seemed to express this while fencing. Her attacks were aggressive and very little attention was paid to her defensive position. This made it very easy for Adrienne to poke her. It was strange, as the noirette wasn’t usually this easy to win against.

Soon, their practice was over and they headed to their locker rooms to change back into normal clothes. They had agreed to meet each other in the library afterwards to work on homework. (Of course, it was already 6 o’clock by this time, but the library at their school stayed open quite late on Fridays because many clubs met there and students often times went there on the last day of the school week to get homework done so that they could enjoy their two days off.)

By the time that Adrienne reached the library, Kagami was already there. She always changed out of her fencing gear pretty quickly somehow.

“Hi Kagami. You’re still upset,” Adrienne observed, sitting down at the table that the other girl had already spread her stuff all over. Nathaniel was there, as well, currently immersed in his phone. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Kagami answered, scribbling something down on a sheet of paper.

“You sure? You don’t seem like yourself.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Alright, then,” Adrienne didn’t want to press any further. She allowed Kagami to continue working on her math homework and instead turned towards the redhead sitting on her left. “Hey Nathaniel.”

“Hi Adrien.” Nathaniel didn’t look up from his phone and continued rapidly typing.

“So… whatcha doing?” the blonde tried to start up a conversation.

“Texting Marc.”

“He’s at the Café de Fleur with Juleka and Alya and everyone else, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t you just go over there then? It’s only like a ten minute or so walk.”

“Because I have to do homework. I have to go to Brussels this weekend with my parents to visit my aunt and so I need to get it done.”

“You’re not even doing homework.”

Nathaniel just shrugged, “I like spamming Marc.”

“Okay then,” Adrienne opened her bag and slipped out the homework that she had for Madame Mendeleiev’s class. It was a worksheet about ionic compounds, covalent bonding and other chemistry stuff that she didn’t really want to think about. However, she needed to get through it so that if Chat Noire was needed this weekend, then she wouldn’t have to worry about not getting it done.

Speaking of which, she wondered what Ladybug was doing at that moment. Was her lady hanging out with friends, sitting on a bench in the park? Or perhaps she was studying for school, possibly listening to music, to maybe, oh what was the name of that singer, Indila? She seemed like a girl that would listen to Dernière Danse. Maybe Ladybug listened to Lou. A Mon ge was a good song.

Adrienne’s thoughts floated from what Ladybug was doing to the bluenette’s hair. She daydreamed about being able to run her fingers through those sparkling locks, being able to braid it, play with it. Have her hands in it while kissing Ladybug passionately. Stare into the girl’s crystal colored eyes while caressing her, running a hand along the small of her back. Adrienne bet that it would be beautiful, too, if she were to let her hair out of the pigtails that she always wore.

Adrienne knew that it wasn’t healthy to think about someone else this much, but it was really difficult not to when that someone was so wonderful. Like, how did anyone else not to manage not to think about Ladybug a lot?

The blonde’s thoughts drifted from the girl in red to the one sitting to her right. Kagami really hadn’t seemed too happy at all since the beginning of their fencing lesson. She had been in a much better mood that morning, however, when Adrienne saw her in PE. Something must have happened since then. Whatever it was, Adrienne wouldn’t be able to know until later, or if Kagami even decided to tell her about it.

Adrienne snapped herself out of her thoughts and tried to concentrate on homework. Tapping a red pen on the table, she looked over the paper in front of her to see if there were any blanks that could easily be filled. There were quite a few, to Adrienne’s surprise.

The blonde worked through the rest of the sheet quickly, then took out her math homework. She placed her red pen on the table next to her blue one, taking out a pencil instead. Kagami was still working on hers so it must have been hard. (The two of them were in the same level of math, and usually Kagami was quite good at it, so for her to have trouble would mean it would be impossible for Adrienne to do it.)

However, interesting enough, it was actually really easy. Maybe Kagami was just having trouble concentrating on it. That would make sense, due to her mood.

Another half hour passed and eventually Adrienne looked up to see Kagami tapping Nathaniel on the shoulder.

“Hey, you know a lot about art, right?” the noirette asked the redhead.

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, uh… do you know if there are any good books on art that I could check out from this library? Like, specifically regarding sketching?”

“Sure!” Nathaniel started to get up. “Here, let me show you where they are.”

“Alright,” Kagami started to follow him. “We’ll be back in a minute, Adrien,” the fencer turned to face the other girl. “Watch our stuff, would you?”

“Of course, it’s not a problem,” Adrienne shrugged her shoulders, then looked back down at her homework. Since when was Kagami into drawing? That had never seemed to be her thing, really. That girl had never really been into anything relating to the creative type of stuff and had always preferred more physical activities, or things that included social interaction, such as debates. (She had joined debate club, saying that “it was an excuse to start arguments with people.” And according to Alya, Kagami was pretty damn good at it, too.) The point was though was that art seemed like the last thing that Kagami would be into. Maybe she just decided to try a new hobby. That was always a possibility.

Adrienne wasn’t left alone for too long to mull over Kagami’s sudden interest, however, as not long after the two friends left, a much too familiar brunette was sliding into the seat next to her.

“I love that shirt that you have on right now.” Adrienne didn’t even have to look over to her left to know that the voice belonged to Lila Rossi. Much to Adrienne’s dismay, there wasn’t a moment when Lila wasn’t trying to flirt with her. It was really quite annoying.  
“It’s the same shirt that I wear everyday, Lila,” Adrienne reminded the other girl.

“I know, it’s just that it looks extra good on you today. Also, I love your ring!”

“Thanks. My father gave it to me a while ago. According to him, it’s been in the family for years.” That was a complete lie. It was just the story that Adrienne came up with about the ring to tell anybody that asked her about it so that she could hide the fact that it was actually the miraculous of the black cat. It wasn’t like her father would ever notice that what she was saying about it wasn’t true, it’s not like he even paid attention to her half of the time anyways.

“That’s so neat! I also have this really special ring that my mother gave me. I usually wear it everywhere, but like I’m not wearing it today because it got dirty and since it’s so special, I had to get it specially washed so that it wouldn’t be damaged. I really don’t like not having it though, because you never know when something’s going to happen.”

“What do you mean, you don’t like not having the ring because something bad could happen at anytime?”

“Well,” Lila put her hand on Adrienne’s shoulder. Adrienne immediately backed away, not enjoying the other girl’s apparent lack of personal space. “I can’t really explain it. If I did, I’d be revealing a big secret about myself and I wouldn’t really wouldn’t want to do that. It’d probably put me in a lot of danger.”

_Is Lila literally trying to imply that she’s Chat Noire? Yikes._

“If that’s the case, then I won’t ask. Anyways, don’t you have a lot of homework to get done before this weekend? I thought that you were going to London for the next few days.” At this point, Adrienne was just trying to get Lila to go away and do something else instead.

“Right! Yeah, I forgot to tell you that that trip was cancelled. My mom and I aren’t actually going over there anymore. The concert that we were planning to go to then was cancelled. Jagged Stone isn’t playing a concert there anymore. His mother just died and so he’s not going to go on tour, like he had planned. It’s quite a shame, really.” Adrienne was sure that Lila’s plans to go to London had never been real in the first place. At least that last part about Jagged Stone was true, though. Lila wasn’t completely full of shit. “So yeah,” the liar continued. “I have plenty of time to do homework this weekend. I’m going to have a lot of free time on my hands.”

“So what are you going to do with all of your time this weekend, then?” Adrienne questioned, not caring one bit about the answer.

“You know, I really don’t know. I mean, I could go to the movies or something, but there aren’t really any movies that I want to see. You doing anything?”

“Yeah. I’m going to a movie on Saturday with Kim and Alix and some other people. Alix and I lost a bet against Kim, so now we have to go see a movie of his choice with him. Other than that, though, I’m probably just going to my Chinese lesson and doing some photoshoots for my dad.”

“So then,” Lila finally took her hand off of Adrienne’s shoulder. “Does that mean you’re free Saturday night?”

“Yeah… why?”

“Can I come over to your house Saturday night?”

“Uh, sure, I guess?” Adrienne would’ve told her no, but there was no way from stopping Lila from coming over anyways. For example, one time she’d told Lila that she didn’t feel like hanging out, but the brunette showed up at the Agreste mansion anyways, claiming that she was there to help Adrienne with homework. At first, Nathalie refused to let her in, but once Lila told the assistant that Adrienne had a mere B in her English and French cross-studies class, Nathalie welcomed the girl into the household.

“Great! See you at five o’clock tomorrow!” Without waiting for a response, Lila jumped out of Nathaniel’s chair and waved goodbye, returning to her own studies. That sure was a painful conversation to endure.

With Lila’s departure from the table, Nathaniel and Kagami arrived back. The latter was carrying a stack of about 3 books, all of which were on the subject of drawing people.

“So, you found some books, Kagami?” Adrienne guessed, watching her sit back down.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Nathaniel was surprisingly really helpful.”

“Surprisingly?” the redhead mocked being offended.

“Usually all you do after school is sit around,” Kagami shrugged.

“I do not just sit around!”

“Oh my gosh, you really do.”

“Okay, maybe a little bit. But I at least help Marc with his homework.”

Soon, Adrienne stopped listening to their conversation. She sighed, letting her thoughts drift back to Ladybug. Pining was really quite a hopeless thing to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk why but i really want some of those cheap ramen noodles right now.
> 
> edit: (june 19th) i'm still working on the next chapter for this, don't worry! i've just been trying to figure the rest of the plot out for the story first and foremost. besides that, i've also been writing this other short mini alyanette fic to try and figure out my writing style a little bit more, so if you'd like, then you can go check it out.[ here's](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19277671/chapters/45847045) the link.


	4. spontaneous death speech by tikki and oh hey kagami how are you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been... absolutely forever since i've updated this. but i'm not going to give up on this! i'm going to finish it, even if it takes me ages. so yeah.
> 
> i wrote this while listening to the rwby soundtrack. i just recently discovered that series and it's so good. (like, it took me forever to get used to the weird animation style, but i'd say that the plot and killer soundtrack makes up for that.) [here's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iSTJYIXYao) one of my favorite songs.
> 
> also, remember that note that i wrote at the beginning of chapter 2 about adrienne and how everyone else still thinks that she's a he? well, just keep that mind when reading this because this is another chapter focusing around marinette.

Marinette was nervous as hell when she got home on Friday night.

She’d told Alya that she would come out to her parents as bi, something that she could never really work the nerve up to do. It had to be done eventually; the girl didn’t like hiding her true self from others and so hiding her sexuality would make her feel as if there were a restraint holding her back from being happy.

But then again, did she _have_ to tell them?

If Marinette was able to be with Adrien, then there was no necessity to tell Tom and Sabine about being bisexual. They’d be able to assume that Mari liked boys, and only boys. They also wouldn’t have to worry about their daughter being beat up by some homophobic idiot.

Besides, Mari was Ladybug, and hiding that part of herself didn’t really bother her that much. Well, it did annoy her at first, when she’d initially gotten the earrings, but now she was used to it. Perhaps if she gave it some more time, Marinette would get used to the fact that she was hiding her bisexuality. It would be...

_No no no._ Hiding Ladybug was different. A sexuality is something that should be shared, something that one should be able to be open about. People are always open about being straight, so why shouldn’t Marinette be open about being bisexual?

The bluenette sighed, going into her bedroom and slamming the door behind her.

“Tikki?”

“Yes, Marinette?” the red kwami flew out from the pink purse that she always stayed in and landed on the wooden desk, next to where the sewing machine was kept.

“So you know how Alya wanted me to come out to my parents tonight, right?”

“Yep! She’s been telling you to do that for forever.”

“Well,” the bluenette tapped her foot on the ground, clearly very anxious. “I think I’m going to do it tonight.”

“That’s awesome! I’m so proud of you Marinette.”

“Don’t be proud of me yet. I still haven’t done it and there is a good chance that I’ll chicken out.”

“But it’s still great that you’re going to try! It’s been, like what? A whole month? Since you decided to give it a shot,” Tikki encouraged. In Marinette’s opinion, she was being way too optimistic.

“Yeah, it’s been a while.” A beat. Then, “Should I do it over dinner? That’d be a good time, right? But then again what if it ruins dinner for my parents? I don’t want to do that.”

“I think that’s actually a great time to tell them. And if it ruins dinner for them, then it’s their fault that they’re biphobic.”

“But-” Marinette protested, before being cut off.

“If they don’t accept you, then that’s their fault, because they’re not open minded. It’s not yours. And besides, you don’t even know if that’s how they’re going to react. From what I know, your parents are pretty accepting people so it’s more likely that they’ll have a good reaction rather than not.”

“I guess that’s true… well, maybe. We don’t know for sure.”

“Just do it, Marinette. It won’t be that bad.”

“Okay then. I’ll tell mom and dad at dinner then.”

___

 

The next hour entailed of Marinette pacing around her room, trying to sew herself a pair of pajama pants, doing math homework, and googling ‘how to come out to your parents’ (for probably the 50th time).

At one point, she even activated her miraculous and then dropped her transformation a moment later in an attempt to raise her confidence. She’d always been much more self-assured as Ladybug. Too bad she couldn’t come out to them while wearing the costume.

In this time, she also received a text from Alya, who encouraged her to come out to her parents. All these people telling her to come out to her parents was putting quite a bit of pressure on her.

Finally, at about 7 o’clock, Tom poked his head up through the trapdoor going into Mari’s room and asked her to come down to dinner. The bluenette obliged, telling him that she’d be down in a minute.

When she finally made her way to the dinner table, Marinette chose the seat furthest away from where her parents were sitting. Of course, this wasn’t actually a large distance, with how small the room was, but she wanted as much space as she could.

On the table was cassoulet, a dish of white beans stewed with meat and some vegetables. Mari wasn’t quite the biggest fan of this meal, but hey, it was food, and the girl was hungry.

“So, Marinette,” Sabine, who had been conversing with Tom, turned towards her daughter. “How was your day at school? You’ve been in your room since you got home and so I wasn’t able to ask.”

“It was good,” was Mari’s short reply. She tapped her foot against the ground and stared down at her empty plate.

“That’s what you always say, maybe some more details would be nice?” Tom prodded as he took some of the food from the middle of the table.

“Well, we’re reading a book called The Secret Life of Bees in French and English literature. It’s in English and so I’m having a little bit of trouble making sense of it, but that’s to be expected. And then… what else did I do? I hung out with Alya, Rose and Juleka today at lunch. They were nice, like usual.”

“That’s nice. I know no English whatsoever, so I can’t really help with your assignment,” Sabine smiled and then nodded towards the bowl in the middle of the table. “Why don’t you take some?”

“Right,” Marinette scooped up some food onto her plate. “Can’t really forget to eat.”

For a little while longer, Marinette and her family ate, making some small talk amongst themselves. Mari felt nervous, like she was on the edge of her seat the whole time. It was hard finding a good spot in the conversation to bring up her sexuality.

Soon, dinner was coming to an end, and Marinette knew that it was time to bring up what she needed to talk about. There was a break in the conversation and she took this as an opportunity.

“Hey, mom, dad?” the bluenette’s voice was quiet. “Can I talk to you about something?”

“Yeah, sure, what is it honey?” There seemed to be a bit of concern in Sabine’s voice, Marinette noticed.

“Well, uh,” Mari stuttered. She was so anxious. It felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest, with how nervous she was. Seemed as if there was a snake crawling through her veins, making her insides feel jumbled. “Um, uh…”

Tom noticed her uneasiness and scooted closer to his daughter, putting his massive hand on her thigh. “You don’t have to be so nervous.”

“It’s just that, uh” Marinette couldn’t find the words that she was going to say. Anxiety was coursing through her veins and she found that she had a hard time moving her mouth just say two words, two very simple yet complex words. _I’m bisexual._

So instead, she came up with something else. But what could she say though? Her parents had already caught onto the fact that she was extremely nervous, so she couldn’t pass if off as something else, such as telling them that she was thankful for their support or something. So, she just said the first reasonable thing that came to her mind.

“Mom, dad, I’m failing math. I might actually have to retake the same course next year, I’m doing pretty bad.”

Sabine put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. “We can get you a tutor and some help or something. It’s not for sure that you’re going to fail. Right?”

“Yeah, it’s not for sure,” Marinette put her hands in her lap and looked down, pretending to be ashamed. “There’s still some time before it’s definite.”

“Well, we’ll be sure to get you a tutor. It’s just disappointing that you’re doing terribly. You seem to spend more time with your friends than doing your homework and studying. Besides, we hear you sneaking out in the middle of the night. It’s no wonder that you’re tired all of the time,” Tom chastised. He seemed more disappointed than Sabine had been, that’s for sure.

“What do you mean sneaking out?” Marinette pretending not to know what they were talking about. She didn’t need them locking her window or something; she had to be able to get out just in case there was an akuma in the middle of the night.

Sabine’s tone suddenly turned very serious, “Oh, don’t pretend that you don’t know about that.”

“Know about what?”

“See, that’s exactly what we’re talking about.”

“Marinette,” Tom started. “Don’t lie to us, okay?”

“But I’m not lying!”

“You are too. Now, excuse your mom and I, we need to go talk about your punishment.” With that, the two of them promptly left the room to go discuss some consequences.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Tikki flew out of Marinette’s jacket and sat on the table. “It would’ve been much easier to tell them that you’re bisexual, Marinette.”

“I know, I know. I just panicked.”

“And now look at the situation that you’re in.”

Marinette sighed. “Well, I guess they were bound to figure out that I was sneaking out in the middle of the night at some point. As long as they don’t figure out that the reason I’m sneaking out is because I’m Ladybug.”

“Still, Marinette, it’s-” but then the kwami zipped back into the jacket, immediately becoming quiet again when she noticed Tom and Sabine coming back.

“So, here’s the deal, Marinette,” Tom sat back down at the dinner table. “We’ll give you a week to get your grades back up. But if you can’t do that, then we’re grounding you for a month.”

“Also,” Sabine added, “If we hear you sneak out in the middle of the night again, then you’re grounded for an additional month. And we’ll have to lock the door to the bakery from the outside so that you can’t get out. Is that clear?”

So they thought that she was sneaking out through the bakery. 

Marinette nodded. “I understand.” This meant that she’d have to be quieter when she snuck out; it wasn’t like she could just not fight the akumas. But how? It wasn’t like Mari wasn’t already making an effort to make as little noise as possible. Perhaps she could soundproof her room a little bit by adding some rugs and thick curtains. That probably wouldn’t make too much of a difference, though. She took in a deep breath. “I suppose that I’ll have to go work on some homework now,” she got up and left before either of her parents could ask about where she went at night.

___

 

It was midnight, and Marinette had just snuck out.

She was on patrol as Ladybug, jumping across rooftops and keeping an eye out for anything that looked weird. It was boring, yet still an important part of her job in keeping Paris safe. Who knew what could happen when it came to the safety of the civilians.

At this time, Mari was nearing the Eiffel Tower. She could see it over rooftops, lit up with bright lights, twinkling in the night. The stars and the moon shone down upon it too, further enhancing its beauty. It was a shame that no one else was here with Marinette; she would’ve liked to enjoy it with somebody. Maybe Adrien, Alya, Juleka… or even Chat Noire. Of course, Chat’s cheesy pickup lines and horrible puns were annoying, but Ladybug had enjoyed having her as a friend. She could always count on her, no matter what happened.

The cat superhero wasn’t there, though; Mari had tried contacting her through her yoyo numerous times already and she didn’t receive an answer, so she assumed that Chat must have something going on in her civilian life. Or maybe she just accidentally fell asleep. Marinette had done that a few times before.

Either way, she kind of missed Chat’s company.

___

 

“Marinette. I knowww you’re Ladybuggg. You should give me your miraculousss” an eerily high voice sounded from underneath Mari’s bed, waking the girl up with a start.

“Wha- who are you?” she stuttered, sitting up.

“I’mmm an all knowing beinggg by the nameee of Tikkiii…” the red kwami floated up from her hiding place, going through the covers. At this, Marinette visibly relaxed and the shocked expression on her face was replaced with one of annoyance. “The only way that you can prevent me from takinggg your miraculousss is to get out of beddd.”

“You scared the shit out of me, Tikki. For a second I thought that you were Hawk Moth or something.”

“Well, it was an effective way to wake you up. Half of the time when I just say your name, you just continue sleeping.”

“Honestly, in my opinion, it only makes me wonder how much time you’ve spent with Plagg over the years since your creation.” Marinette had met Plagg once before, when Chat Noire had lost her miraculous during the whole Queen Bee incident. She’d spent quite a bit of time talking to the cat kwami, trying to figure out where the miraculous of the black cat could have been, but Plagg had no idea. During that time though, he’d also made many bad puns and ridiculous comments. Like kwami, like holder.

“Eh, I haven’t spent too terribly long with Plagg. Maybe only like a few million years or so.”

“That sounds like a very long time to me.”

“It wasn’t billions of years, though. I spent a lot of time with Pollen and Trixx.”

“I suppose that’s true.” A beat. “You know, sometimes I forget how long you’ve lived for. Like it feels so strange to live for that long. How do you not go crazy from living? I’ve barely started my life and I’m already going crazy.”

“It’s because humans are different than kwamis. Kwamis are meant to live for a long, long time, and humans are meant to have a somewhat shorter lifespan. However, all living things must die at some point. Even though I have lived very long, my time will come. Of course, it might be trillions of years from now, but still, I can’t live forever. It’s just the circle of life. I’m sure new kwamis will arise and take the place of the current kwamis. Or maybe, my end will be at the end of this universe. But then, perhaps, a new universe will take its place. And everything will start all over again.”

“Wow, I didn’t realize you were going to give me a speech about existentialism this morning,” Marinette yawned. “Isn’t kind of early for that?”

“Everything is always too early for you, Marinette.”

“True.”

“Now, you should probably get ready and get some breakfast. Remember that you’re going to a movie with friends today. It starts in two hours.”

“I better get ready then,” Marinette didn’t wait for Tikki to say anything and she headed downstairs, to where her parents were probably making breakfast. She opened the trapdoor that led up to her room with a squeak and headed down the stairs to the kitchen, her feet making soft noises against the floorboards. When the bluenette got to the kitchen, she found that her mother was making some omelets for breakfast, like she had expected. Her father must have been baking some things for the bakery; it would open up in about an hour and they were running low on fresh macarons.

“Hey sweetie, good morning,” Sabine nodded in her direction as she sat down at the counter. “I’m making some food for you, so I hope you’re hungry.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty hungry,” Marinette replied just as her stomach growled. “It feels as if I haven’t eaten anything in forever.”

“I bet. Also, Marinette, I was going to tell you this last night, but as you know, we got caught up discussing your… poor grades. Anyways, though, your grandparents are planning a visit in a few months. They’d like to see how you’re doing and spend some time with you.”

“Oh, that’s exciting!” Although Marinette didn’t really feel excited. In fact, that just reminded her that she might have to come out to them, too. And they weren’t always the most accepting people. Like, Marinette’s grandpa started an argument with her father over bread recipes. He didn’t like that he changed the ingredients because it went against tradition of the Dupain family and was therefore disrespecting all of his ancestors. “Have they decided what dates they’re coming on?”

“No, not quite yet. Your grandparents are still deciding on when exactly.” Sabine scooped up the omelet that she was making and set it in front of her daughter. “Here’s breakfast.”

“Thanks.”

___

 

Approximately two hours later, Marinette was almost late for the movie that she was going to see. That wasn’t really a big surprise, though. Between her life as Ladybug and just her natural tendency to be late, it was rare that she actually showed up for time to things.

When the bluenette got to the theatre, she was met by Alya outside, waiting for her.

“Girl, you’re late.”

“Yeah, I know,” Marinette shrugged. “I just lost track of time this morning.”

Alya sighed, “Typical. Anyways, everyone else is already in there. The movie’s supposed to start in three minutes, so hurry up.” She motioned to Marinette, who followed her into the cinema. 

“What movie are we seeing again?”

“Cybersharks 7: The Attack of the Whales. Kim was the one who picked it.”

“Right. I don’t get how he likes these movies.”

“Me neither. They’re honestly really bad.”

“Why did we even let him choose it in the first place?”

“Remember when we all made a bet on whether Juleka or Rose would confess first?” Marinette nodded, she remembered. A few months ago, the whole class, minus Lila, Chloé, and Sabrina, had made a bet on whether Rose or Juleka would tell the other one of their feelings first. Kim had said that it would be Juleka, while everyone else expected it to be Rose, since she was the more outgoing one and was better at speaking her mind. However, they were all proved wrong when Juleka was the one to initiate the confessions. “Well, since he won the bet,” Alya continued, “he’s making everyone go to a Cybershark movie.”

“I thought we already gave him 5 bucks each.”

“Well, now he’s dragging up to a movie, too.” 

They came to a pause in their conversation as they handed their tickets to the person running the cashier. The two of them promptly found the theatre. “Hey Marinette,” Alya pointed out as they entered. “There’s an open seat next to Adrien…”

“If I sit next to him, then I’m going to be blushing a lot and I won’t even be able to concentrate on the movie.”

“Do you need to concentrate on the movie? This is Cybersharks, after all.”

“That’s true. I just… it makes me nervous.”

“Alright then, if that’s what you want.” Then, Alya led her friend down the stairs to a row that their friends were sitting in. “Hey guys, sorry we’re late. Or rather, sorry Marinette was late. You know how she is,” the brunette whispered.

“Oh, hey Marinette,” Rose waved at the bluenette. She was cuddled up against Juleka, and the two of them were eating a big bucket of popcorn. “Here come sit next to me, you can have some of our popcorn.”

Alya must have paid her or something, because the empty seat that Rose was referring to was also next to Adrien. “Oh, thanks.” Marinette obliged, nervous, and climbed over the affectionate couple to get to the seat next to her crush. Alya remained on Rose and Juleka’s other side, sitting in the remaining empty seat next to Juleka.

Marinette focused on the movie in front of her, trying to forget about the cute boy besides her. On screen there was a battle scene going on. From the looks of it, many of the characters were trapped in an underwater cave and trying to kill the cyborg shark that was chasing them around. One guy with brown hair and blue eyes was shooting at it, while another guy wearing red with long black hair was messing with a box that looked like it was kind of important. He seemed panicked, too, and there was a constant stream of bubbles coming from his mouth. Maybe he was drowning.

Then, the scene flashed to an office where some person who had to be in his early twenties with white hair and a scar over his nose was eating a donut and reading a newspaper. Next to her, Adrien let out a little laugh, reminding Marinette that she was sitting next to him. She stared at him for a moment, feeling her cheeks heat up before she once again turned her attention to the screen.

Or rather, tried to. Because at that moment, a whisper came from besides her.

“Marinette,” It was Adrien. “I can’t believe that it’s only 15 minutes into the movie and I can already count 3 plot holes. Like can’t that dude with white hair just press a few buttons and just blow up all of the sharks?”

Marinette had no idea what Adrien was talking about, so she kind of just went along with it, “I know, right!” she giggled. “I seriously don’t get how Kim likes these movies, they’re so bad.”

“Yeah, totally.” After that, the blonde went silent once again and returned his attention back to the movie. Marinette did the same, or at least tried to. Adrien was proving to be a big distraction.

Some time passed, and once again, a voice came from beside Marinette.

“I swear, this movie is hilarious.” Adrien turned to her. “Like seriously, I think they just changed the complete plot of the movie halfway through.”

“Yeah, I think they did,” Marinette merely agreed. Like earlier in the movie, she hadn’t been watching it. Too focused on pretty boy next to her. Maybe it would be beneficial to take a break from his presence. (Not that she didn’t like it, no, she absolutely loved it, but her cheeks felt burning hot and she was pretty sure that the blush was visible, even in the darkness of the theatre.) “Hey, I’m going to take a bathroom break real quickly. I’ll be right back.”

“Alright,” Adrien nodded. “Go ahead.”

___

 

Marinette was halfway to the bathroom when she heard footsteps behind her running to catch up. At first, it startled the heck out of her, the Ladybug part of her mind automatically going to the assumption that there was an akuma sneaking up behind her. After a moment, she came to realize that no, it was not a villain trying to attack, and merely just her… friend?

Marinette didn’t know, was Kagami a friend? Or just an acquaintance that she knew through Adrien?

“Marinette,” the noirette caught up to Marinette, hands in her pocket. Today she was wearing a short black pleated skirt with a long sleeved white t-shirt. Kagami was always dressed nicely, that was for sure.

“Hi Kagami,” Marinette nodded towards her. “How are you?”

“Okay, I suppose. I kind of have a headache right now and there’s something that I’m kind of pissed about.” Hm, what could Kagami be mad about? “You?”

“I’m pretty good! I’m enjoying the movie so far.”

Kagami raised an eyebrow. “The movie is shit.”

“Yeah, well, it’s just so bad, it’s good, you know?”

“I guess so.”

The two of them walked in silence towards the bathroom for a minute (the bathroom was on the whole other side of the cinema) and neither of them dared to say a word. And it wasn’t a comfortable silence, either. Some tension hung in the air, Kagami’s pissy mood making it a little bit awkward.

“So, I see that you have something for Adrien,” Kagami broke the silence, yet made their interactions even more awkward. Her question was very direct, though that wasn’t a surprise, because Kagami was always a very direct person.

“Wha- what do you mean?” Marinette stuttered, caught by surprise.

“You have feelings for him.”

“Uh- no. No, I don’t like him at all.” However, the bluenette’s face betrayed her and took on a shade of ruby rose.

“Sure you don’t.” Kagami saw through her lies.

“No… no, I really don’t.”

“Whatever you say then. Just some advice for you, don’t get too close to him, okay? He might seem like a precious ball of sunshine, but he can really be a dick sometimes.”

So, was that what Kagami was mad about? Adrien? Or perhaps Kagami liked Adrien, too, and she was just making sure that Marinette didn’t try to ask him out. Yes, that must be it… 

At this point, they had reached the bathroom. Marinette felt relieved that she didn’t have to respond to Kagami’s comment about Adrien. She quickly found a stall and did what she had to do, while Kagami did the same. Marinette waited to come out of the stall, though, hoping that Kagami would just wash her hands and go back into the theatre without her.

Marinette watched through the crack in the stall door as Kagami washed her hands, scrubbing them with a ridiculous amount of soap, and then continued on to dry them. Once she was done with that, she leaned against the wall and took her phone out and began to type some things on there.

A minute passed, and Marinette realized that Kagami wasn’t going to leave without her, so she flushed the toilet and came out of the stall. It seemed as if she were waiting on the bluenette to finish. Did Kagami want to continue her conversation about Adrien? Hopefully not.

Mari began washing her hands, when Kagami spoke up. “So, you’re into art, right?” She didn’t even look up from her phone.

“Uh… kind of? Like when you say art, you mean drawing, right? You see, sometimes I draw a little bit. But mostly I do sewing and I design clothes.”

“Huh.”

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’ve decided to try drawing some things. I was wondering if you had any tips?”

Damn, Kagami was being weird. First she passive-aggressively tells Marinette to be careful about Adrien and now this?

“I don’t know what to say, I’m not really that great at drawing. Maybe just practice it? Nathaniel’s probably a better person to ask about this stuff.”

“I already asked him.”

“Was it helpful?”

“Yeah, it was. He could have been more helpful though. He was too busy texting Marc. I swear, Nath’s always overly occupied with things that he shouldn’t be.” Marinette didn’t even have a chance to respond, because after that Kagami was pushing the bathroom door open once more and rushing out.

That certainly had been a weird exchange.

What was up with Kagami? She had always had a rather serious demeanor, but this was nothing like how she had ever acted before. What had changed?

Maybe… perhaps she was homophobic. People who were homophobic could never see past another person’s gayness, or bisexuality once they knew it was there. They were very judgemental and they didn’t want to have to be friends with anyone who didn’t fit the ‘societal standards.’ So maybe Kagami had just discovered that Marinette was bisexual and she didn’t want a bi girl to date Adrien. Or any other girl besides her, for that matter.

In fact, it really did make sense that Kagami would be judgemental like that. Her family wasn’t quite the most accepting, especially her mother, who would roll her eyes when someone so much disagreed as her. And the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (*in a really bad singing voice*) and there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never ending storyyyyyyyyyyyy


End file.
